Have you guys seen Trailblazer?

[AdmundfortGeographer]

From what I can tell, a full spellcaster is still a Tier 1 or 2 class, while the Monk got a tiny power boost.

That seems true, and even the Trailblazer class comparisons would agree with you.

From my scanning through things through, Trailblazer does bring some other things to the toolset outside of class features that narrow the gap. Action points offer options to negate spells like an action point to reroll failed saves and even another action point to make a second chance reroll to saves or SR the next round. Action points to boost weapon damage. Action points to confirm crits without another roll. These favor non-casters or are a second or third chance to avoid a spellcaster's spell's effect.

Default Trailblazer removed all Item Creation feats except for consumable items.

With the rest mechanic non-casters get their all their spent class abilities back with 10 minutes rest; Spellcasters only get a subset of their class abilities (spells) back with the same 10 minute rest, a full night rest brings back all their spells.

Combat reactions are actions every character can perform when it is not your turn, all of them are tailored for non-spellcasting. In addition to flanking a target (granting a +2 bonus to attacks), a character can use a combat reaction to grant their ally another +2 bonus to attack the flanked target and the ally can grant the extra +2 bonus back. +4 bonus total with good tactical positions. Of course characters can grant the combat reaction bonus to attack without flanking a target but instead just standing side by side to each other blocking a corridor.

Probably the best way to tame spellcaster classes is to tackle their class feature, their spells' effects. Trailblazer only took a handful of spells to their redesign-shed. Dispel magic, polymorph, and summon monster being the big ones.

I'd rather the spellcasters be brought down a bit more than the non-spellcasters get brought up more. That way lies Pathfinder classes, which I feel are far too bloated with bling.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Even if you don't change a thing about your game, Trailblazer will give you a better understanding of how the game works mechanically. As a GM, that's gold.

I love the encounter budgeting, a nice improvement over Core's CR/EL system.

 

[IronWolf]

Have you seen Trailblazer, from Badaxe Games? From a quick-flip-through, it almost looks like required reading for the 3.5 GM.

Bad Axe Games

Yeah, I own a copy, good stuff. I haven't incorporated any of it yet, I decided to go the Pathfinder route and running it as written before tweaking anything in it. But just some of the game methodology covered in the PDF is worth the price of admission.

Also, they have their forums here on EN World:

Bad Axe Games Hosted Forum - EN World D&D / RPG News

 

[Psion]

Well, it's the #1 selling item and the ENWorld affiliate page at RPGnow.com, so some folks obviously do.

This goes way back to when I would dust up with Wulf in his blog, but there are problems he perceives that I feel he has very practical solutions for, and some things it seems he spends a great amount of time fixing I really don't think are broken.

I'm a big fan of iterative attacks and action points for example.